Weekend Trip to Galway

If you want the short of what the weekend was like just watch this video, it's cool: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=nvuLilhxghw

This past weekend my roommates and I went on a trip to Galway and the surrounding areas. We left Thursday morning on the bus, where we were lucky enough to have two seats to ourselves, and traveled 3.5 hours across the country to the true heart of Ireland. Dublin is nice in many ways, but it is now a very diverse and modern city. Dublin is massively expanded so although beds of culture still exist, they are difficult to find and most definitely hard to get to. Galway was very similar to Dublin but I much preferred the smaller of the two cities. Shop street and Quay (pronounced Key) street were short pedestrian only streets in the center of the city that were lined with performers, pubs, and shops much like a smaller Grafton street. The big difference is that you don't feel packed in like sardines which is, of course, much more lovely.

Upon Arrival we got a bit of food and started exploring. We ended up in Taaffes pub which is known for it's trad music and the setting was very nice but more importantly it was out of the pouring rain. To quote my roommate, "With the weather the way it is, I understand fully why the Irish are known to drink." We had an Irish Coffee and went back to Sleepzone, the hostel we were staying at, to relax before exploring some more. If my memory serves me correctly we were staying in a room with 4 bunk beds. There were three french people and two others from some Arabic speaking country. We didn't really see any of them much but at points had run ins with Luis the Frenchmen and one of the Arab speaking ones who we helped pronounce "Mug" for (he kept saying "Moo-gh"). After a short while we set off to check out the Quay Street Pub, which if you're interested, was not in the direction we were walking.

Here is how to get to the Quay Street Pub from sleepzone:


View Larger Map

Here is how NOT to get to the Quay Street Pub:


View Larger Map

As you can see we walked about 3 km more than we had to. So the Quay Street Pub was awesome. They had a live band playing mostly US tunes but it was great. We were joined by some friends of the program also visiting Galway and we had a great time. I met some foreign students learning English in Ireland, the ones face lit up when I said Philly cause he loved the Flyers.

The next morning we woke up early and took a tour through the Burren, saw some old churches, and the Cliffs of Moher. We took a tour with the Galway Tour company, which has only been around a couple years but the driver was great and very entertaining. There were only 7 of us on the whole tour so it was very comfortable. The visitor center at the cliffs is pretty cool as it was basically built into the mountain, mind you mountain food is pricey. My absolute favorite part of the whole trip was being on the coast in front of the Burren when the waves were crashing in and shooting over our heads. I absolutely love the ocean and the coast so this was an extremely relaxing spot to me and made me feel at home. There is some video of the waves thundering into the rocks. My camera got soaked and I had some droplets on the lens, so some of my shots were a little blurry.

At night we went back to the Quay Street Pub because it was so much fun the previous evening this time with a separate group of friends. I think it was me, my two roommates, and about 15 girls that were IES students in Galway that weekend, so I guess you could say we were pretty popular haha. There I had a great time speaking with people from Germany that were in Ireland working on a farm. After the Quay Street Pub we checked out one last place before calling it a night called the Kings Head. The place was nice but we got there just as the band was finishing their set so we didn't get to see much. It was also overrun by a hen party which tends to be a little annoying. We had another great time and called it a night.

The next day we set out for the Aran Islands. We had no idea what time the shuttle bus was leaving from Galway and no way to find out, so we decided to just walk over to the stop around 9:30. Upon getting close we asked an employee standing outside what time the Aran Islands bus leaves and they said we better hurry it departs any minute! So we run to the desk, ask if it has left yet, and the woman points over our shoulder to the bus that is pulling away, "Aran Islands". To our absolute luck the bus suddenly stops in the road because someone had to get out and run back in for something. The woman at the desk calls into the bus driver seeing if he'll take us three more. We made it... the driver was kind enough to let us on at the last second. We didn't even pay until after we took the hour ride there.

After taking a ferry over to the Island of Inis Mor, the largest of the Aran Islands, we got off and had no idea what to do. Spontaneously we decided to rent bikes for the day and bike around to see it all. To quote my room mate Dave, upon collecting our cash to pay for all three, "Annnnnd we're broke!" Not literally but we were out of money for the time. The ride started out with a lovely downpour of painful hail... you see we weren't aware this was the off-season for the island. The ride got better though as the hail stopped. On the road we passed roosters wandering around, cows, horses, and even goats. The place felt desolate as it was miles of stone walls covering the landscape and every so often an unoccupied household. It was truly stunning though. We traveled along the coast and up to Dún Aonghasa, which is a stone fort on the edge of a massive cliff dating back to nearly 2000 BC. The view from it is incredible. I basically was standing, sitting, laying down on the side of a cliff while wind gusts scared the bajebus out of me. You can probably tell if you watch the video. After that was the workout. We tried to bike to see the Wormhole, but couldn't find it and ended up biking up an incredibly steep hill. When we got back to the port town that we came into, we went to get coffee at the only place that was open.. "the american bar". Other than the stuff on the walls though it was really an Irish pub. I was fascinated to watch 4 musicians under the age of 10 play trad music in the corner. Slowly their family members joined in anywhere from ages 10 to 45 to 70. It was really a lot of fun to watch. Meanwhile we played 8 Ball with a young Irish boy not 7 years old (he would cheat when my room mates back was turned) and then left shortly after on the ferry.

In the evening we went back out to the kings head with some friends and talked for a long time about movies. Their were some obnoxious men dancing completely drunk right in front of the bar the entire night. When I went up to get a pint the one man put his arm around me (he smelled awful) and starred at me saying, although a bit inaudibly, "lesst mee git you a driink". When I said that no it's alright but thank you, he starred at me and in a very angry manner said, "don't youuu EVER get aggressive with ... an irish man". Which of course was absurd if he was actually sober enough to understand. It was clear he was looking to pick a fight and I observed he was so drunk that he was drifting in and out of being angry to hugging me and cheering that I made sure to remain cordial. Eventually he was whisked away by a song and I was able to buy my own and get out of there. On our way back I'm pretty sure I saw the same guy on the ground outside with 3 others in a brawl, so my temperament saved me a fight thank goodness.

We left the next morning on the bus and it gave me a great opportunity to get through the majority of Ben Franklin's autobiography. I was also pleasantly surprised to find my house key at home, saving me 600 Euro to replace all the locks in the house. *phew* I had lots of work to do for my Northern Irish Perspectives class that evening so I didn't get to post a write up until now.

More people I saw this weekend:

Dennis McLaughlin

Meg Keenan

and someone who must have been a Touey

This upcoming weekend I plan on going to the Trad music festival in the Temple Bar area, should be fun.

Here is a photo album and video of my trip over the weekend, worth checking out:

Photo Album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002569&l=9c8ea&id=1480470118

Video Clips: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=nvuLilhxghw

VBlog One

So this is a short clip, somewhat experimental and I apologize for the peaking audio in the first half. Being the first video I haven't tweaked the microphone quite right yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYbjz6jmzlk

A Couple Left out Stories

I just woke up and realized I left out a couple of stories from the past week. First off, the list of people I have seen since here in Ireland on the street:

Dad
A high school Mom, that threw me for a loop.
LA Katherine Clay ;)
Uncle Larry (t'was a barman)
Colin McLaughlin
Mrs. Monahan
and one who could of been our brother

So the first "Irish" person that I bothered to get to know outside of our program was the mocha coffee shop worker named Antono. He moved to Ireland 5 years ago from Romania. It may be the one shop with the best customer service around. We talked about several topics, immigration and how to cheat the Irish system, skiing since he was an instructor, surfing, and the weather. Romania is much like home, it has four seasons and it can get very cold and very hot. So Antono was reminiscing about the first time he came to Ireland and watched all the locals when it would get freezing. He recalled the first week he was here where he noticed a line of Irish people all along the canal just staring into it. He thought it was so eary that he went up and asked a local why they were doing this, his response, "I have been here for 30 years and this is the first time I've seen the canal freeze over!". They rarely see snow, it never accumulates, and when it gets to 2-4 degree C weather they act as if the sun has hid itself for ever and we are in a never ending Arctic winter. I guess that's where the name Hibernia comes from.

Secondly I forgot to mention my two encounters with barmen. It is always interesting to see what people think of immediately when you say Philadelphia abroad. The first barman was the one from The Bleeding Horse and I got a kick out of his response, "Ahhh Philly! That's where the Roots are from right? They are huge over in the UK and a bit here." The second was the barman at 108, a local old pub in Rathgar, when hearing we were from Philadelphia he turned around and asked, "Have you ever met him!? Have you met Rocky??" And he proceeded to put his hands above his head and run up the stairs, "You've at least gone to the stairs and done this right?" Also my landlord first remembered going to Philadelphia and said it was lovely and "the city of brotherly love", so abroad Philadelphia is currently known as the lovely city of brotherly love with a fictional boxer who trains at the art museum and a hip hop group. Never mind liberty, maybe one day someone will say that.

Oh and thank you Emily and Kate, my first two "Subscribers"! For this I will have a special prize the next time I come back from my monday night class.

P.S. Devitt's Pub (The Cusack Stand) has great live traditional music thursday, friday, and saturday nights. No cover, it's upstairs. A group of family members just sits around a table and plays, sings, ect. for a few hours. The amount of people grows and grows and if you are ever in Dublin and can't find a non-trendy place, there's a place to go.

Messrs Maguire pub is another reccomendation from me and my roommates. It could be a little loud latter at night, but during the day it's a great place to get a pint. Old fashioned setup inside with tons of places to sit, and best of all they have micro-brews for 4 euro, which is the cheapest price for any pint in Dublin that we have found and also the best tasting.

Second Week

More Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002536&l=a383a&id=1480470118

Video of My House:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPbrGJbLoRo

So I've been a little quiet over the past week but that is mostly because of how busy I have been. It has been jam packed as it was the first week of classes and I was still settling in a little to my housing situation. It's been tough with my leg problems dealing with the amount of walking I have to do, but it is great exercise. I would estimate I've walked around 100 miles already.

So this week, first off Go Eagles! I'm lucky enough to have got to watch the game in a pub called Portobellos and will see the NFC Championship game tomorrow also. It was a lot of fun watching it with some giants fans as well... haha.

On Monday I had my first two classes, the first is called Northern Irish Perspectives. It is a lecture course which brings in noted speakers from all different sides of the conflict including former politicians, writers, IRA members, secret service, collumnists, ect. Everyone listed appears highly qualified and probably were only brought in because of the teacher (who has written books on the conflict that we are reading for the class). The one thing we all noticed is that the teachers they bring into IES really seem to have the chops and are very qualified. The second class I had was Irish Language and Culture. This one is going to be fun because half of the class I actually learn Irish and the second half is focused on culture through the years like music, art, theater. I can already have a very basic conversation!

Tuesday I had a class entitled Northern Irish Troubles. It is more of a history course of the northern conflict then the first and again has a great teacher. The man was a collumnist throughout the entirety of the conflict over the past 40 years and has access to footage and information that is not public.

On Wednesday I had my final two courses, the first was Conflict Resolution in which the teacher helped write part of the legislation for the peace process over the past 8 years and the course focuses on conflicts all around the world, their similarities to Northern Ireland's, and how they could be worked towards peace. The course at night is Celtic Myth and Legend. It is not really down my alley and is definitely different than anything else I am taking, but it could be fun and also sheds light onto the early days of Ireland.

The weekend has been fun so far. On Friday we did a scavenger hunt around the city (to which my team placed 2nd and won cd's). Mostly it has been a Pub crawl though. There are so many interesting old pubs around the city that we wanted to see. Tonight me and my roommates went to Devitts which has a family that does Traditional Irish music. It was a much better ending to a day that included walking 50 minutes round trip to do laundry (no washer here) in the pouring rain and wind, just to come home to a power outage. It's because of that where a good sense of humor has really come in handy, you just have to roll with it!

I'm pumped for the Eagles game tomorrow, but I have a lot of reading I have to get done first for my classes, which you read correctly are only Monday-Wednesday (long classes though). Go Birds!

Have a Nice Day

Have a Nice Day... such a simple saying that I took for granted. In Ireland they don't say anything like this. There does not exist a "have a good one" or "have a good time". Stemmed from their history of superstition, people thought that a line like that would bring bad luck upon them, so such well wishing never worked its way into culture. In fact, for a very long time on the west of Ireland, there was an Irish saying that was expected to be spoken after the end of a compliment, or else you cursed whatever it is you complimented. So there is no self-congratulating or bragging over here and no one really talks about if they are doing well or not. In America we are generally supportive and complimentary of our peers but here it's much more hush hush. In short, I miss the easy, polite, and convienient way to end a conversation or store transaction with "Have a Nice Day", rather than the more usual awkard smile or just plain good bye here.

A couple more notes on shopping, first of all everything is much smaller. That is the simplist way to put it. You won't see a gallon of milk only a 2 Litre, bread doesn't come in "family size" and soda bottles are pretty much 3 sizes: A slightly smaller can (about 10 ounces), a plastic bottle (about 16 ounces), or a 2 litre bottle which is shaped the same as the 16 ounce one, just all huge like. Second note, almost every transaction is done afterwards. A lot of places in America, like cafe's, you pay right away for whatever you ordered. Since this culture isn't very on-the-go, almost every transaction you make will be after you are done. In some ways it is nicer, other times it can be bad business. I say that because often they don't know exactly what you consumed. You go ahead and just take whatever drink or crisps you want and pay when you are leaving. It really would be easy to lie about the amount you actually got. Lastly, to a similar point, the service is generally awful. There has been times that we have walked in to cafes, not directed if we should sit down or not, waited for nearly 30 minutes with no idea if we were ackknowledged or not, and a waiter finally showed up. They had seen us but were very slow, a simple "I'll be with you in a bit" goes a long way. Now, I'm not one to complain much, in fact I don't really mind service being that bad, but in some of these stores the people really don't offer much at all. You really start to realize how ridiculously friendly and helpful people who work in american clothing stores are compared to other countries. Oh, and this is mostly for mom, they charge extra for paper or plastic bags so in general you bring your own bags or find room on you, you won't see anyone buying a months supply of food here.

I'm going to write up another post shortly on what I've been up to for the past week, I started classes and wanted to get through them all before posting. Will do in a bit!

Pictures from First Week

If you don't have a facebook account, no worries! I'll post links to view them without having the account. Here is the first collection from my first few days overseas:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2002533&l=c8728&id=1480470118

Contact Information

Phone Number: 215-856-4361 (no txts, usually voicemail but I can call back, old number forwards to this. NO CHARGE FOR YOU! It's a 215 number)

In Case of Emergency: +353 (086) 859-0120 (this is my Ireland cell phone, it will not charge me Int but will you)

Address:

Andrew Clay
26-29 Rathmines Rd
Lower Dublin 6
Ireland

Send me anything you like!

First Weekend

Well then, I though I would throw another update onto here. We are pretty much settled in now. Dave has been a great cook so far and we have made the majority of our own meals. On Friday we had our second Orientation where we picked our classes, talked about some cultural stereotypes, and met the two coolest policemen or "garda" ever to exist. The Garda in Dublin are very laid back and don't carry guns. You can even see them walking the beat around town. They are very approachable and friendly people. It makes me a bit jealous that we have to deal with cops that can sometimes come off as overwhelmingly authoritative but I guess it's just a difference of culture (one particular difference that I prefer here).

After our orientation we filled out our registration for the semester. I have class Monday to Wednesday and am taking 3 courses focused on the Northern Conflict, Celtic Mythology and Legend, and Irish Language and Culture. They should be fun and it really gives me a lot of time to travel if I so choose. Dave, Joe, and I then left to check out the local gym (which they signed up for and I'm saving my money on) and hit up the phone store too. Grafton street is unbelieveable. It is a pedestrian only cobblestone street lined with stores and musicians. It really shows how international the city has become.

We later hit up a local grocery store and brought home potatoes, rice, dinner rolls, and some juices to make ourselves some dinner. The chicken seasoned with Italian dressing was delicious.

After dinner, to all our surprises, we individually passed out even though we all planned on hitting up Comans pub (the local pub in rathgar). We decided to just call it a day and save our energy for the following Saturday.

Saturday: Saturday we rode the Luas for the first time and discovered how ridiculously easier it was to use then to walk. It cost about 3 Euros round trip to St. Stephens Green for the entirety of the day. We rode it from Milton and walked from St. Stephens green, through City Centre passing the Temple Bar along the way, and all the way to the Old Jameson Distillery. We took the tour which basically explained every single step along the way into making Whiskey. Yes, this is how we are spending our money for educational purposes... so at the end of the tour they give you a free sample, to which my room mate can't drink yet with his medication, so I got two. Afterwards we got a late lunch at a cafe downtown, to which I advise against requesting a "soda" because they looked at me funny until I said "Coke?". The Chicken, ham, cheese, and tomato panini I got was absolutely delicious. It was a lot of fun walking around downtown, as I saw an irish band making fun of two girls from denmark because of their funny questions.

Later in the evening we went to Portobellos Pub because we saw it was broadcasting NFL games. We watched the Ravens vs. Titans and a few others from our program showed up as well. We had a pretty good time and left to catch the Luas back before it stopped running. On a side note, I don't know who/what/when checks the luas tickets. We bought them at a computer terminal and no one checked them once the whole time during the day. A sign on the wall said if you are caught without one you have to pay 45 eruo, but we never saw someone check once. Very strange.

Later in the evening I had a 50 minute phone conversation with every single person at Helen's 18th birthday party, Happy Birthday!

To the Emerald Isle: Day 2

Since I've been in Ireland I think I have been so busy that I've done 10 times more then the whole of winter break and most definitely in walking. I got blisters on my feet by the amount we went around on the first night, which was not a very lovely surprise in the morning when I had to go the same distance (it's all better now though). The IES Center is located on Rathmines road across from a stunning church. It is a renovated building and they did a great job with it. Collectively we were introduced to all the staff and had orientation. The orientation may have been the most enjoyable I have ever had to sit through. The staff is very upbeat, friendly, and enjoyable to listen to (not just for the accent, they are funny too)

At the end of the orientation we took a trip to Glendalough in County Wicklow. Glendalough is a gorgeous old site where Glendalough Monastery used to be. It has one of Ireland's round towers, breath taking scenery, and a deep history. We were served lunch in the inn they have which is nice in and of itself. The one thing I have noticed is that the portions of everything are much smaller. The food is right down my alley and although I'll have to get used to the different portions I in a way prefer it as it is helping me get into great shape.

While walking around Glendalough we saw St. Kevin's, the remains of the late Cathedral, and the gorgeous scenery of the mountains and two lakes. Please see the pictures on my facebook it is truly stunning.

After the trip back we split up into two groups and had dinner downtown. My group went to La Cave where it became very clear the ratio of guys to girls was really disproportionate. I had dinner surrounded by 6 other females. It was a great time with great conversation. I had the steak, don't remember the soup, about 6 rolls because they were so delicious, red wine on the program, and chocolate moose for desert. It was all very nice even though they did overcook my steak. We eventually got home after another very full day. I did more walking then I think I ever did in one day, I wouldn't be surprised if it was 10-15 miles of walking in total. I'm going to get into some great shape!

To the Emerald Isle

I've arrived! At last I am in Ireland. The 37 hour journey until I could finally sleep begun at Newark, NJ International Airport. I loved watching the Irish tourists board the plane with me, as they looked very out of place as much I would be in Ireland. Many were wearing random sports teams jerseys even though sometimes the colors were a bit off. I very much enjoyed watching 3 young irish children tossing around a green american football, although I'm going to just pretend it was for the Eagles instead of the more probable Jets.

It was my first time flying since I was a child and knowing that the first time ended up with me tossing up onto my Mom, I was hoping for a better result. The trip boarded on time but we had to sit on the runway for about an hour in order to de-ice. I sat in an Isle seat next to two Irish men a few years older then me, but they weren't very chatty... in fact they didn't move the entire time. Instead they both watched Spiderman a few times, which I felt for bad for them. The Contenital Airlines have these touch screens with lots of movies to choose from, I went with Eagle Eye and Casablanca. There was no sleep to be had on this trip, but the flight went fine. We landed in Dublin at 10:20am. It is surely beautiful from above.

I made my way off the plane and was greeted by Sarah and Caroline, two of the IES staff. I let them know I was immediately disappointed that Dr. Phil was on the TV above us. After meeting my future roommate Joe, we split a cab and were on our way through Dublin to our house. Joe gave me the worst news anyone could receive before coming here, that the two week long stomach medicine he was on couldn't allow him a lick of alcohol! We were met by Terrance O'Neil the older landlord at the house. He greeted me by saying through the door, "We don't allow Americans in here!" with a heavy Irish Brogue. He was very kind and funny. When he introduced himself through the brogue, I thought he said "Clarence" to which he jokingly took great offense, saying that's a fairy name and making a limp wrist. We were shown all around the area and the house is great. I'll write a seperate post on the house, as it deserves as much.

Joe and I shopped for a bit and were terribly out of place. Shopping is an entirely different experience in Dublin and yet again deserves an entirely separate post also to come later. We got some toiletries and ingredients to make ourselves some pasta at home. Our third roommate Dave showed up afterwards. In the evening we joined the rest of our program at the Barge for a pint and we met plenty of great people. The pints were a bit pricy, at about 4.5 euros for a guinness, but there is no tipping in Ireland so it's not so bad. After getting a bit confused on our way home which was already a 30 minute walk, we waved down a taxi which brought us about 2 minutes from where we were to get back. We wrongly tipped the taxi which we later learned but all was well. Finally, after being awak for nearly 37 hours, we got a short bit of shuteye at 11:30pm (GMT) which is 6:30 EST. Day one complete.

Packing

So this post is mostly a test. I've been feverishly packing and getting ready to venture off to Ireland over the past couple days. While abroad you can reach me at the phone number 215-856-4361. Most of the time it will go straight to voice mail but I will return your calls when I get the chance! I've still got to figure out if I can get my verizon txt msgs forwarded. I also have a skype name "andrewclay" and a webcam if anyone ever wants to video chat.

It's been crazy but I can't believe I'm 3 days away from being in Dublin!

My blog will post onto my facebook page. It can also be seen at andrewclay.blogspot.com

edit: do you update facebooks note?
edit: Yes it did!